Marisacat

Underwater 20 April 2011

A British diver swims near a blue whale. The images, taken last month, are the first ever to show a human and a whole blue whale in the same shot together. Many have battled hard to achieve the feat, but due to the size of the whales have only come up with shots showing divers and parts of the animals. Team members of Scubazoo – a British dive company based in Malaysia – spent 200 hours diving eight-hours-per-day for 25 days trawling the ocean around Sri Lanka in order to capture the scene. Roger Munns, from Cornwall, was photographed by Jason Isley, from Essex, making contact with the giant of the seas at around 10 metres depth. Roger said: “It was amazing. It was murky so we didn’t see the whale until the last minute, and it travelled so fast. The encounter only lasted about 45 seconds and then it was gone. But all those hours waiting were worth it.” [SCUBAZOO / BARCROFT MEDIA]

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I just read some hunger stats recently on Santa Clara County noting that over 30% of the population was “food insecure.” In one of the country’s so-called “wealthiest counties.”
Replymarisacat – 20 April 2011

Oh well, the Democrats running will just promise “food”. No real discussion of the WHY of it all.

Maybe someone else has an offering. Ah, HuffPo. Maybe their take with the Big Font will be helpful.

‘IT’S A MESS’
White House, Pentagon At Odds Over Libyan Intervention

Cue even more shameless War mongering if you can imagine it and advice for Lyndon Baines Obama , the not-so “nimble pouncer” in this clusterfuck of a piece-

HuffPo –

WASHINGTON — After 26 months in office, President Obama still has not forged a smoothly working national security team that can both nimbly pounce on military crises and deftly manage festering problems, say current and former U.S. officials.

As in previous administrations, much of the problem lies in the friction between civilians working in the White House and military officers and Defense Department civilians working across the Potomac River in the Pentagon. Senior officials describe the predicament as a “culture clash.” The miscommunications and misunderstandings between the groups cause frustration and anger, which sometimes even leads to policy paralysis, officials say.

One recent example of this dynamic at work is the Obama administration’s tentative, half-way intervention in the Libyan uprising.

“It’s a mess,” lamented a senior U.S. official. Washington took the bold step of committing military force, but not enough to win. The administration waited to apply very limited military force until it was almost too late, and now, the official says, it has painted the U.S. “into a corner.” In the resulting stalemate, Libyan rebels and civilians are being ruthlessly pursued and killed while the United States, in effect, stands helplessly by.

The White House wanted the Pentagon to come up with a low-cost regime-change plan for Libya. 😆 ❗ Ideally, this strategy would have toppled Col. Muammar Gaddafi without bogging the U.S. down in another inconclusive foreign adventure. And by no means could the plan have included young American infantrymen advancing under fire across the sand….

The military kept insisting that no such option existed. A real regime-change operation, some officers argued, requires “boots on the ground.” That was a cost the White House, given rising domestic pressure to bring the troops home from Afghanistan and Iraq, was unwilling to consider.

😆

In long meetings and email exchanges, arguments over strategic details often led to more serious disagreements, the official told The Huffington Post. The White House thought the Pentagon was disrespecting the president by refusing to propose a politically acceptable action plan, while the Pentagon became furious that White House officials didn’t “seem to understand what military force can and cannot do,” the official said. 😆

people should be scared shitles that France UK and even Italy are putting troops in (well, you know “advisors”)…

The White House thought the Pentagon was disrespecting the president by refusing to propose a politically acceptable action plan, while the Pentagon became furious that White House officials didn’t “seem to understand what military force can and cannot do,” the official said.

And the uber uber religious crew that jst won seats and majorities enough to swing legislation in Hungary, makes the “True Finn” party seem middle of the road, predictable reaction to change on the ground.

And NOW, even The Great Kos is getting slapped around in a thread by his minions for not being so Great and Kossy and all… LOL: navajo for one, and after doing all that wash! That fuckwit gun-nut “kestrel”, that radio personality from Hooterville Virgina being another…

They want Order, Damn It!
They Want Meathead Sage back! They don’t want outsiders, like small people coming in to teh communiteh, and like, say shit!
They DON”T WANT a Business now! LOL.
They DON”T EVEN WANT a BLOG!
They want a VILLAGE, Mr Potter!

Something like that; they want Great Chief to erect Big Tent to make Peace with Gun-toting Calvary Man. None want talk of Land Stealing or massacre. They speak of grabbing mops and getting to work! On next years big hunt!

Radiation from fish and lobsters near the U.K.’s biggest nuclear polluter suggest radioactive material dumped into the sea from Japan’s Fukushima power plant isn’t a long-term health threat, scientists said.

The Sellafield nuclear-processing plant in northwest England has discharged at least 320,000 times more radioactive material into the Irish Sea since 1952 than what Tokyo Electric Power Co. released from Fukushima this month, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data from both sites….

The lobsters must love it:

Between 1952 and 2009, Sellafield discharged more than 47,855 terabecquerel of cesium-137 and strontium-90, two of the most dangerous radioactive elements to human health, according to calculations based on data from the U.K. Environment Agency and the Journal of Radiological Protection.

hmmm that San Francisco company sounds really familiar:

The facility is owned by the U.K. government’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and is operated by Sellafield Ltd., a joint venture of Areva, San Francisco- based URS Corp. (URS) and London-based AMEC Plc. (AMEC)

Anywhoooo, the piece goes on to amazingly imply: no damage done, nothing to see here …This Guardian piece, however, tells a much different story (and it was very hard to find, in a search, despite it’s fairly recent date of January 27, 2011):

“Sellafield is a national disgrace. Sellafield is where we house the toxic legacy of our failed nuclear industry,” said Paul Dorfman from the University of Warwick, who has worked extensively on radiation and nuclear waste issues with the government and industry.

“The history of waste storage in Sellafield is vast and complex and it’s only recently that the NDA had to ask for further billions from the Department for Energy and Climate Change to make safe elements of our waste storage. We’re not talking about bells and whistles here, we’re talking about things that really need to be done.”

g’night all, I’m really morose after that, …think I’ll just nimbly pounce off to bed in a tad.

Hmmm one last post, and then I’ll nimbly pounce off to bed, I’m sure everyone will appreciate this NYT, Educational piece by the Learning Network, and certainly good that the studious kiddies can understand truly important words:

What’s tommorow’s Victorian vocab lesson from the Parsons at the NYT? Work House? Debtor’s Prison?
Fits in nicely tho –
so we can all follow reports as matters are resolved over The Eastern Question.
What’s old is new again.

Disraeli was, according to some interpretations, a supporter of the expansion and preservation of the British Empire in the Middle East and Central Asia. In spite of the objections of his own cabinet and without Parliament’s consent, he obtained a short-term loan from Lionel de Rothschild in order to purchase 44% of the shares of the Suez Canal Company. Before this action, though, he had for the most part opted to continue the Whig policy of limited expansion, preferring to maintain the then-current borders as opposed to promoting expansion.[64]

Disraeli and Gladstone clashed over Britain’s Balkan policy. Disraeli saw the situation as a matter of British imperial and strategic interests, keeping to Palmerston’s policy of supporting the Ottoman Empire against Russian expansion. According to Blake, Disraeli believed in upholding Britain’s greatness through a tough, “no nonsense” foreign policy that put Britain’s interests above the “moral law” that advocated emancipation of small nations.[65] Gladstone, however, saw the issue in moral terms, for Bulgarian Christians had been massacred by the Turks and Gladstone therefore believed it was immoral to support the Ottoman Empire. Blake further argued that Disraeli’s imperialism “decisively orientated the Conservative party for many years to come, and the tradition which he started was probably a bigger electoral asset in winning working-class support during the last quarter of the century than anything else”.[65]

A leading proponent of the Great Game, Disraeli introduced the Royal Titles Act 1876, which created Queen Victoria Empress of India, putting her at the same level as the Russian Tsar. In his private correspondence with the Queen, he proposed “to clear Central Asia of Muscovites and drive them into the Caspian”.[66] In order to contain Russia’s influence, he launched an invasion of Afghanistan and signed the Cyprus Convention with Turkey, whereby this strategically placed island was handed over to Britain.

Disraeli scored another diplomatic success at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, in preventing Bulgaria from gaining full independence, limiting the growing influence of Russia in the Balkans and breaking up the League of the Three Emperors.[67] However, difficulties in South Africa (epitomised by the defeat of the British Army at the Battle of Isandlwana), as well as Afghanistan, weakened his government and led to his party’s defeat in the 1880 election.[68]

Something struck me as chillingly sadistic about that nameless NYT post, no reference in the lesson to the definition a parent in the US is fairly likely to associate it with. And looking over the ‘page’ it does appear to be an NYT, teach the kiddies on line program. And glad you pointed the lack of a Firewall out – FREE EDUCATION for the kiddies of the lowlife parents who don’t subscribe to the …Times, just in case they might prove mentorable (i.e.: extremely beautiful/handsome, and/or lethally cunning, and devoid of humanity). Yeah, nothing new under the sun, generally, when it comes to the aspirations, actions, and tragic victims of the Obscenely Powerful and Wealthy.

The classic sort of knee jerk reaction when there is no real solution to be had.

The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday issued new orders requiring that air traffic control supervisors oversee the arrival and departure of planes carrying the vice president and first lady. . . . .

a return to robust administrative moderation and due diligence by the operators of this site.

At this point, you are risking Daily Kos becoming such in name only.

When groups advocating the legalization of incest, for example, are allowed to exist here, or to offer another example, a group advocating the legalization of virtual child pornography does not result in its creator being immediately and permanently banned, you place the site’s credibility to speak for the Democratic Party at serious risk.

This laissez-faire approach to moderation is failing.

Epically.

I speak as one who has participated here obsessively since 2005.

I even get away with shit I shouldn’t at times.

People call me rude. I wish we all were nude. I wish there was no black and white. I wish there were no rules.

2. As President of the Meteor Blades’s Fan Club I am saddened by every user that bashes MB. I think your words and descriptions of MB make him appear unimportant to you. I think this enables the MB bashers.

You should use words that value your staff, each of them.

We are more than anonymous bloggers thanks to you. 😆
I consider many here family, including you.

THis made me laugh. I think he was finding trotting out Rania of Jordan and Sirleaf-Johnson of Liberia to be treadworn. Thread bare. Worn out. Dull. And overdone.

Took years for him to notice, I guess.

“President Clinton Announces First Clinton Global Initiative Meeting Focused on Driving Job Creation and Economic Growth in the United States: President Bill Clinton [will announce] today that he will host a Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) meeting focused on creating jobs and driving economic growth in the United States. The meeting, CGI America, will be the first CGI event solely dedicated to economic issues impacting the U.S. and will take place in Chicago on June 29-30, 2011.

The Cloud, meant to replace the obscelesced Heaven, as a more intellectulized, “scientific,” and “mathematical” version of Nirvana , for the purposes of the Elite,…is my meek take, …and I envision all the brilliant ones justifying how they fell for that trap; …certainly I could be wrong, but since it’s my opinion, I’m highly doubting that I am.

(ohh, and I get such an, out of this world experience, ‘kick,’ out of the: …oh but the Android …Do No Evil, etc., ‘shout out,’ …. I guess that might be fine for anyone living on that out of this world planet, but not so much, for those of us living here.)

So.

At Thursday's debate, Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren defended their Medicare for All plan. They faced criticism from several rivals, including Senator Amy Klobuchar, who described it as a "bad idea," and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who claimed the bill shows Sanders and Warren do not "trust the American people."

At the third presidential primary debate in Houston, Texas, senator and 2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Warren also spoke about her stance on U.S. trade policy and how "our trade policy in America has been broken for decades."

After being questioned about the crisis in Venezuela, Senator Bernie Sanders defended his vision of democratic socialism. "I agree with what goes on in Canada and in Scandinavia: guaranteeing healthcare to all people as a human right. I believe that the United States should not be the only major country on Earth not to provide paid family and medical le […]

Debate moderator Jorge Ramos of Univision grilled former Vice President Joe Biden over the Obama administration's deportation record. Biden refused to answer whether he did anything to prevent Obama from deporting a record 3 million people.

A U.S. House of Representatives panel on Friday demanded internal emails, detailed financial information and other company records from top executives of Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc, Apple Inc, and Alphabet Inc's Google, widening the antitrust probe of Big Tech.

U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Friday asked a government watchdog to look into the Trump administration's decision to launch an antitrust probe into four automakers cooperating with California on tighter greenhouse gas emissions limits that Trump is trying to eliminate.

A lawyer for former FBI official Andrew McCabe pressed U.S. prosecutors on Friday to drop their politically sensitive case against him, citing reports that suggest they may be having trouble securing criminal charges.

Media

from Howl

I'm with you in Rockland
where we wake up electrified out of the coma
by our own souls' airplanes roaring over the
roof they've come to drop angelic bombs the
hospital illuminates itself imaginary walls collapse
O skinny legions run outside O starry
spangled shock of mercy the eternal war is
here O victory forget your underwear we're free
I'm with you in Rockland
in my dreams you walk dripping from a sea-
journey on the highway across America in tears
to the door of my cottage in the Western night

October 7 1955

"a remarkable collection of angelson one stage reading their poetry"
"I think Allen Ginsberg standing up there reading - putting himself on the line - was one of the two bravest things I've ever seen. Remember, it was '55. People had crew cuts, and they looked at you like you were misplaced cannon fodder. The country was being run by Luce publications. It was a dangerous, cold, ugly time, and it was scary. . .
In all our memories no one had been so outspoken in poetry before. We had gone beyond a point of no return. None of us wanted to go back to the grey, chill, militaristic silence, to the intellectual void - to the land without poetry - to the spiritual drabness. We wanted to make it new and we wanted to invent it and the process of it as we went into it. We wanted voice and we wanted vision."
-Michael McClure

Democrats…

Same as goddam fucking forever.
Over and over, in election year after election year, GE and MidTerms both… the Dems start to purr and preen, they stretch luxuriously - at just being TOLD they are going to win [...]
It never fails.
... in February of 2002, looking over the already joyless congressional stragglers willing to be drafted for duty… they barely dreamed, yet, it was even possible (Howard, a different person then, had not arrived to say it could be done)… but one thing was clear, we could not rely on the party to swing it. Could not. You could smell it, they would screw the deal. And I am not talking about Howard and primary issues here. By the end, that was a passing political story. Chuck it on the heap.
[...]
Upshot? The Republicans make it thru. They hold on.